a kid's primer to the war, japan style

JAPAN -- While flipping through the channels last Saturday night trying to pick up news on the war, I came across a show that was teaching kids about the conflict. It looks like the show (or segment) is called Kodomo Nyusu (Kid's News). They were using toy props and cartoons to show a trio of very glum-looking kids what was happening in Iraq. While well-intentioned, it was too bizzare to pass up, so I grabbed my camera and started snapping photos.

Oh, not so fast kiddies! First you have to open your math textbooks to page 17. Now, using this chart as an example, calculate the number of journalists that will be kicked out of Iraq before the war ends.

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"The level of ignorance about World War II throughout Japan is appalling," says Chang, shaking her head. One Japanese psychology professor she talked to said he's been asked by more than one puzzled college student: Who won the war? ... "Even the media is involved in an unspoken code of silence on this. It's alarming to me how much suppression is still going on." ...

"There are people who are openly denying that the [Rape of Nanking] happened, and the government supports the practice of enshrining them," she says, her voice taking on an edge. "It's like building a cathedral in the memory of Hitler, and worshipping statues of Hitler as God... At a minimum, they should put in their textbooks a true accounting of what happened."